The Pilgrim girls basketball team saw its playoff run end in the Division III semifinals last week when top-seeded Lincoln School wrapped up the 40-35 win.

Despite falling behind by as many as 11 points in the second half, the No. 4 Pats would rally and cut the deficit to just two points with two minutes remaining in regulation. The Lynx, led by leading scorer Sarah Berube, would hold off the late surge and close out the win.

The Pats were led by senior Lily Hall, who finished with 10 points. Hall and fellow senior Sloan Hogan spent much of the night guarding Lincoln School star Reign Whiteing, effectively holding her to just 10 points and limiting the damage in the first half, especially. 

“She’s a very tough player, aggressive and strong. Tonight could have been better but I think I did pretty good,” said Hogan of her performance against Whiteing.

Pilgrim coach Kaitlyn Rachiele felt that the big-game jitters impacted her young team, as much of the roster is made up of underclassmen that had not played in the basketball postseason. Pilgrim’s offense struggled to play clean down the stretch, with turnovers putting it in a bind as the Lynx capitalized. 

“(The difference in the game) were the turnovers and pressure, that little bit of pressure forced some bad passes. It was a packed gym, we’re a young team. I think that the nerves and pressure led to those turnovers,” said Rachiele. 

Pilgrim had a bounce back season, finishing with an 11-2 league record and emerging as a contender in DIII.

Despite the loss, Hogan was proud of the team’s showing in the semis.

“We left it all on the court. We were happy to make it to the final four,” said Hogan.

With much of this year’s core set to return, including players like Madison Tuirok, Skylar Hawes and Lia Wasilewski, the Pats should be right back in the thick of the DIII title picture next winter.

Graduating will be Hall and Hogan. Hall hopes that the younger players will learn from the defeat and continue with the program’s philosophy of playing with toughness and sharp defense. 

“They’ll need to work hard, play hard for four quarters. Aggressiveness, play good defense and never give up,” said Hall. “We played hard tonight, we’re not mad about tonight.”

“I hope they gain confidence in knowing that they can do this when they believe in themselves. We’re a young, young team and we will only get better from here,” said Rachiele, who gave one final shout out to her two senior leaders. “I just really learned a lot from Lily and Sloan came a long way, she never played basketball and all four years she’s gotten better. I will miss them tremendously.”